Tuesday, December 6, 2011

There are massive heaping, stinking piles of garbage floating in our majestic oceans, yet as a society we continue to mass produce throw-away plastics like it’s nobody’s business, prolonging the positive impact of a seemingly never-ending battle to save our big blue. Are you f-in kiddin' me?!

This PSA courtesy of Surfrider.

I’m sorry to say that, contrary to popular belief, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch does in fact exist. If I’ve lost you already, please refer to Exhibit A, confirmation from the NOAA (“a federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and the atmosphere” www.noaa.gov). Although they are foggy with their description, even the U.S. government can no longer deny the presence of the patch. This monstrosity came to be as trash from shores all across the globe was carried out to sea then swirled in the oceans for years only to wind up in the North Pacific Gyre (learn more about gyres here). Some harmful effects of the ginormous garbage pile include water samples containing more trash than plankton, innocent marine animals experiencing tragic illness and death by strangulation and ingestion, and our seafood is left unavoidably contaminated, just to name a few. In case you didn't know, throw-away plastics are not biodegradable! Each day there are 2 million plastic beverage bottles used in the U.S. alone, and most caps aren't even recyclable under current bills. If you haven't heard about this, please have a look at the following brief video fromTedTalks.

The oceans, seas and their creatures not only enhance our lives with their charisma, they are also a necessity to our survival. Without our oceans we wouldn’t have rain. Without rain, we would not have trickling aqua streams rushing through rainforests or crystal clear lakes amidst snow-capped mountains. We wouldn’t have rivers or trees. We would have no water and no oxygen! Water gives us life. It is our life. Marine inhabitants are essential to the wondrous underwater ecosystem, another necessity to the existence of oceans.The undersea creatures also provide us (at least they use to before people over-indulged Big-Time) with plenty to eat.

These photos are courtesy of the Ocean Conservancy.

I felt this issue deserving of my first post to this blog for countless reasons, the main one being that this is an enormous problem with detrimental effects from sea to shining (or maybe we should say “oil-doused”) sea and not nearly enough attention is being brought to it. Thus, not nearly enough is being done to change it. Are you f-in kiddin' me, society?! Let’s work together and save our natural sustenance. Please pick up trash when you see it, and try to use less plastic (even replacing one plastic bottle a day with a reusable cup or thermos makes an impact). Rise up people, save and protect our beautiful oceans.

I’m not an environmentalist folks, well maybe I am, but mainly I’m just a humanist.